Now, after four years of advocacy from Galdiano and others, the library is slated to reopen. On May 2, Fort Worth residents approved a $14.6 million bond proposition funding improvements to libraries citywide.<\/p>\n
About $2.2 million of that proposition will relocate the history center to the former City Hall building in downtown<\/a>. Public information officer Theresa Davis told the Report in April that reopening the library as part of the bond was in response to residents\u2019 requests.<\/p>\n \u201cWe heard you,\u201d Galdiano recalled City Manager Jay Chapa telling her community at a public meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat was refreshing to hear,\u201d Galdiano said.<\/p>\n The Seminary South Library primarily served the majority Hispanic communities surrounding Worth Heights, such as Rosemont and South Hills, as well as southside neighborhoods like Ryan Place, where Galdiano now lives.<\/p>\n The library\u2019s closure left a gap in library services for the southern portion of Fort Worth\u2019s urban core, said Vicki Bargas, president of the Worth Heights neighborhood association.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bargas said she was ecstatic when she heard about the library\u2019s reopening. In the lead up to the bond election, she helped mobilize community members to approve the library proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just never really fully understood the reasoning behind (the closure),\u201d Bargas said. \u201cOf course, (the city) said it was underutilized, but never presented any data to that effect. We were really blindsided when it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Adding to the confusion was the fact that the Seminary South Library building was only large enough to accommodate a part of the history center, Bargas said. Since the relocation, Fort Worth has stored many of its local history documents \u2014 like genealogies and old newspaper records \u2014 in a warehouse. Residents have to order something to have access, staff said at a March 31 work session.<\/p>\n Bargas, who was about 16 when the library opened, used it throughout her life and often saw teachers and their students from nearby elementary schools visiting, she said. After Seminary South closed, Worth Heights\u2019 closest public library was the Wedgwood Library<\/a>, 5 miles away.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still a huge drive,\u201d Galdiano said. \u201cMy being able as a child to walk from my house to the library, it was liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n She said that over her career in public health \u2014 which led to her being director of Texas Health Resources\u2019 mobile health program \u2014 she\u2019s come to understand the throughline between accessible education and preventing poverty<\/a>. Not having easy access to a library could negatively affect the area\u2019s low-income families for generations, Galdiano said.<\/p>\n The city attempted to fill the gap left by the Seminary South Library by opening a library in La Gran Plaza<\/a>, a mall across the street from the Seminary South location.<\/p>\n But the small library in the mall has not met the needs of the community, Galdiano and Bargas said. The mall is often crowded with visitors from all over the metroplex, and the library carries books geared more toward children.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not really a place that youth, college-level and adult learners can really go to and use the library space the way a library space is expected to function,\u201d Galdiano said.<\/p>\n Davis, the spokesperson, said the needs of the La Gran Plaza location will be reevaluated moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said it\u2019s too early to commit to a specific timeline to reopen the library, as \u201cany relocation is pending final renovations of former City Hall \u2026 and then the coordination of transitioning the city archives.\u201d<\/p>\n The library bond package will also fund the modernization of the Southwest Regional Library,<\/a> which was built in 1987 near the Overton Park and Tanglewood neighborhoods. The Diamond Hill\/Jarvis Library<\/a>, which opened in 1989, will see similar renovations.<\/p>\n Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/CAS_la_gran_plaza-6-1024x683.jpg\")
A person walks by mannequins dressed in Western wear inside El Mercado in La Gran Plaza, 4200 South Freeway, in Fort Worth on Aug. 23, 2023. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n